With a clinical pregnancy rate of 43 percent in their in vitro
fertilization (IVF) program, fertility specialists at the Emory Center
for Reproductive Medicine and Fertility have cause for celebration.
Opened in September of 1994, the center performed 106 egg
retrievals through the end of 1995. Forty-one percent of these
retrievals have led to a live birth or a pregnancy that is now beyond
five months of gestation.
IVF success rates in North America were last reported for 1993
by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology as 23 percent
clinical pregnancy rate per egg retrieval and 19 percent live birth
rate per egg retrieval,* according to center director
Carolyn Kaplan, M.D.
"The combination of board-certified reproductive
endocrinologists, dedicated nurses and the skill of our embryologists
has contributed to this impressive success,"
Dr. Kaplan says.
Dr. Ana Murphy, director of the Division of Reproductive
Endocrinology, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the
Emory University School of Medicine, is particularly pleased with
center's success using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to
overcome severe male factor infertility.
"In the majority of couples who have been treated with ICSI
and are who are now expecting a baby, even conventional IVF
technology would have failed in the past to make them conceive," Dr.
Murphy says.
Couples visiting centers like Emory═s usually have already
spent years trying to conceive. They present with a host of problems
affecting one or both partners, and so must be offered a host of
treatments for optimizing conception. Treatments may range
from advising couples to have
intercourse more frequently when the female partner is ovulating,
prescribing fertility drugs, or suggesting delicate procedures such as
IVF, gamete or zygote intrafallopian transfer (GIFT or ZIFT), or
micromanipulation.
* PREGNANCY RATES
The success of IVF procedures can be described in a number of ways.
It is important that the method of arriving at a pregnancy rate value
is clearly defined so that the information is not misleading or
deceptive. A clinical pregnancy refers to the implantation of an
embryo and development to a stage where a gestational sac can be
seen by ultrasound. Emory's clinical pregnancy rate was determined
by dividing the number of clinical pregnancies produced by the total
number of egg retrievals attempted (no egg retrievals were excluded
from the data set). Emory's ongoing pregnancy rate was calculated
from the same data set by dividing the number of pregnancies that
have continued beyond five months of gestation by the total number
of egg retrievals attempted. The comparative data for clinical
pregnancy rates in North America in 1993 as reported by the Society
for Assisted Reproductive Technology is the most recent data
available.
(Editors/Producers: Doctors, patients and babies are
available for photographs/ interviews. Striking through-
the-microscope b/w photos available of sperm being
harvested in glass needles and "injected" individually into
mature eggs and of fertilized eggs (zygotes). VHS-quality
video of similar images is available, and microscopes may
be fitted with broadcast-type cameras.
Contact: Sarah Goodwin, 404/727-3366.)

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